A variety of sun shields and windscreens for personal use are to be found within the existing art. This inventor's search has identified the following United States Patents as being most closely related to the present invention: U.S. Pat. No. 2,193,469 (Ashton); U.S. Pat. No. 2,832,360 (Juhase); U.S. Pat. No. 4,030,747 (Brock); U.S. Pat. No. 4,063,318 (Nicholson); U.S. Pat. No. 4,098,281 (Bonfilio); and U.S. Pat. No. 4,180,112 (Bovet). Each of these inventions has the same broad general purpose of shielding the user's face or person from sun and/or wind. Some have flexible form configuration. Others are attached to or are part of lawn or beach furniture. Still others are self-supporting and collapsible, however, many have complexities not found in the present invention.
The use of the present invention stems from the experiences of persons who enjoy sunbathing. In order to expose their frontal portions of their person, they must lie such that they are facing the sun. The incidence of direct sun upon their faces, in many instances, causes discomfort to the eyes, and the potential for severe burns to the sensitive areas of the head and face.
Many approaches to this problem are in common usage, ranging from a towel over the face to beach umbrellas. The towel approach presents discomforts in that it rests directly on the user's face and does not provide much air circulation. The beach umbrella approach requires the user to periodically move the umbrella to reposition the shade to a desired location.
The present invention improves upon these approaches, and those of the cited Patents by being simple, portable, collapsible and by offering the further features of air circulation, visibility of and to the user, and in serving as a hand carrier for towels and the like when not in use as a face shield.
The invention herein disclosed is further envisioned to have alternate embodiments, each of which provide the advantages herein claimed.